Neil Lennon not overly concerned despite Celtic being held to 1-1 draw by Arbroath

01 December 2012 07:33

Celtic boss Neil Lennon insisted his side's shock 1-1 draw with minnows Arbroath will have "no bearing" on Wednesday's crucial clash with Spartak Moscow.
The second division battlers earned a Scottish Cup fourth-round replay when a deflected free-kick from Steven Doris beat a stranded Lukasz Zaluska with four minutes remaining.
Lennon had made nine changes to his starting line-up as he looked to rest key players for the Champions League Group G decider, and he remains confident of progressing to the knockout stages. "It will have absolutely no bearing on Wednesday whatsoever," said Lennon. "It will be a different team, a different opposition, a different atmosphere and a different prize at the end of it so the players will be fully focused and I am hoping to get a different scoreline.
"You always feel that at 1-0 anything can happen and it did. We have missed a hatfull of chances to see the game off but we are still in the competition.
"I wanted to use my squad today and I learned some things about some players. I learned that I can't have a couple of people in the wall because they seem to want to jump out of the way.
"That annoyed me more than anything else, that's where the deflection came from, if they stand their ground that doesn't happen."
Arbroath player-manager Paul Sheerin believed the result was even better than when he scored for Inverness Caledonian Thistle in their memorable 3-1 win at Parkhead 12 years ago.
He said: "Obviously I was fortunate enough to be involved as a player at Inverness a few years ago - and it feels a few years now, that's for sure.
"But this probably outweighs what we did with Inverness, we were a full-time football club.
"To come to the Scottish champions with a part-time club, training four hours per week and get a result, as we have done, is up there with the best from a personal point of view, that's for sure."